pella-at-solon-knia

When Pella travels to Solon on Friday in the quarterfinals of the class 3-A football playoffs, it will be a battle of two of the top programs in the history of Iowa.

The Little Dutch have won back-to-back titles. The Spartans have five trophies.

Pella has 28 playoff appearances, tied for seventh most all time. Solon has 27.

This is the 10th straight playoff appearance for the Little Dutch, and the 12 for the Spartans.

And both teams are Iowa’s all-time best in football winning percentage. Solon checks in at fifth on that list, while the Little Dutch are 13th.

Pella Coach Jay McKinstrey has tremendous respect for the team that will be on the other sideline on Friday night.

“I remember when we were trying to look at programs as far as what we want our athletes to be like, they were one of the teams that we looked at. We want to emulate their athleticism and where they put their athletes on the field. They do such a great job, and they have a great football team, players and coaches, and it will be a great challenge for us going up to Solon.”

This season, each team went 7-0 to win their district. The Little Dutch are 10-0 overall, while the Spartans are 9-1, with their only loss coming to Iowa City Regina.

Friday’s game will be broadcast live on AM 1320 and FM 95.3 KNIA, www.kniakrls.com and the free KNIA mobile app.

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